Iconic Norman Rockwell paintings to be auctioned

Someone is going to get a nice Christmas gift. Sotheby’s will be auctioning off three of Norman Rockwell’s most popular visions of small-town Americana. “Saying Grace,” “The Gossips” and “Walking to Church” all appeared on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post.

“Of Rockwell’s 322 covers for The Post, the three images were particularly popular. ‘Saying Grace’ — a crowded restaurant with a boy and an old woman bowing their heads in prayer — was considered Rockwell’s masterpiece, topping a readers’ poll in 1955,” reported The New York Times. “’The Gossips’ was a finger-wagging montage of friends, neighbors and even the artist himself. ‘Walking to Church’ was another timeless favorite.”

“Sotheby’s estimates that ‘Saying Grace,’ on the cover of the Nov. 24, 1951, issue, could bring at least $15 million to $20 million,” reported the Times. “The painting hung in Kenneth J. Stuart’s office at The Saturday Evening Post and later in his family’s living room in Wilton, Conn. ‘Walking to Church,’ thought to bring between $3 million to $5 million, was in the bedroom of his wife, Katharine.”